When I signed up for The Scene in Cinema, I understood that the class was going to be related to the creative side of cinematography. While I have a basic understanding of the technical side of cinematography through previous classes, as well as my experience as a cinematographer on MyTV; I felt like I was just trying to capture the actors on camera, rather than trying to set a scene up in any artistic sense. Cinematography has always been interesting to me, but I had previously assumed that it would be complicated, and would require all sorts of equipment and crew to do a good job.
Within the first class, I was immediately proven wrong. We were split up into groups, and were asked to remake a scene from Le deuxième souffle (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966) using only panning and tilting, it was surprising to realise how effective a scene could be created with just a single shot.
Afterwards, we were given scenes from other films – though each group was given a different one. We were given a scene from It was interesting seeing how different groups translated scenes in different ways to the source material. The group working with Tengoku to Jigoku (Akira Kurosawa, 1963) was the most distinctive, with the scene changing from the actors scared in a lounge room, to actors tip-toeing around, like they were escaping or hiding from someone.
With that being said, it took a little while for me to get used to the cameras that were provided, but I found it quicker to learn than the other cameras I had used in other classes; because all the important image functions had direct buttons and switches instead of being hidden in a menu.
The second class was slightly easier for me, as I have some experience with depth of field from photography, however, I was not used to the idea of recording shots using a camera sheet. Because of this, our group managed to forget to fill the sheet in. It would’ve been useful for us so we could reproduce the shots more accurately.
With that being said, I’m looking forward to the rest of the studio, though I still have no idea what a good reflection looks like – it keeps turning itself into recounts.
This week, we also read The Big Picture: filmmaking lessons from a life on the set (Reilly, 2009), specifically chapter 4 (What is a shot, anyway?) and chapter 23 (Blocking is overlooked and undervalued).
From what I understand, What is a shot, anyway? discusses how a shot is defined. Tom Reilly (2009, ch. 4) claims that ‘a shot is merely what is photographed in between the words action and cut‘. It makes a lot of sense to me, as I believe that new filmmakers often confuse a shot with a scene or angle. Reilly was able to use good examples to show how shots of different lengths are used, and when more elaborate equipment is required to translate the director’s ideas to the screen. It was also interesting to learn that many directors and cinematographers develop their shots on the day of filming. It makes sense – as it might be difficult to set up shots exactly until production.
Blocking is overlooked and undervalued is about blocking scenes, and how many viewers and directors have no idea how blocking works – if they know what it is at all. Blocking is where the actors and camera operators find their positions for a scene. Reilly talked about how some directors would just allow the actors to roam free on the set rather than just going to their marks ready for the camera operator. It was interesting to see how different directors and cinematographers block scenes, particularly in Woody Allen’s use of stand-ins, which would solve the problem of actors’ directions.
References:
Reilly, T. 2009, ‘What is a shot, anyway?’ 2009 in Reilly, T., The big picture : filmmaking lessons from a life on the set, Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s Press, New York, pp. 16-18.<https://primo-direct-apac.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=RMIT_ALMA11136956340001341&context=L&vid=RMITU&search_scope=Books_articles_and_more&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US>
Reilly, T. 2009, ‘Blocking is overlooked and undervalued’ 2009 in Reilly, T., The big picture :
filmmaking lessons from a life on the set, Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s
Press, New York, pp. 93-97.<https://primo-direct-apac.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=RMIT_ALMA11136956340001341&context=L&vid=RMITU&search_scope=Books_articles_and_more&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US>